There's GOLD in them there Hills!

This week was quite the week.  Of course one of the main things we studied was earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and Japan.  I didn't teach about radiation because frankly it was too stressful to talk to my kids about it.  Maxwell was fascinated and kept Japan in his prayers every night.

We continued to talk about the pioneers.  It was suggested in the Four Year Plan to make soap.  You should've used 13 cups of fat from meat drippings.  We don't really eat red meat in our house.  13 CUPS!  I guess I could have bought the fat.  I really should learn such a good and prudent skill, but the smell.....I bought a kit from Michaels....I'm a wimp.  We did make lots of fun soap though. Just not like the pioneers made soap.

We learned about California pioneers this week, namely the Gold Rush.  What a sad story!  Did you know, however, that Levi Strauss got his start by making sturdy pants for the gold miners from tent material?  Cool random fact.  We had a little gold rush of our own, and filled our tub to make a makeshift river to pan gold in.  It ended up to be really fun and the cleanup wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

For science we learned again about electricity.  We talked about open and closed circuits. We played a game were if your metal wand touched the metal loops, a light bulb would go off.  It was sort of like "Operation,"  What kid wouldn't love THAT experiment?

This week was of course St. Patrick's day, so we made Leprechaun traps.  Wow did they go to town with this!  It's fun to let kids loose with a basic idea and watch them as they create.  Maxwell was SOOOO sad that he didn't catch a Leprechaun, even though he did catch his gold chocolate coins.  He said "I need to change my design to make it more effective." and went to work with vigor to make a better Leprechaun trap, even though I told him that they wouldn't come again this year.

We had the most amazing field trip this week!  We went to the Thomas Jefferson Education Forum.  While our boys went off to their own classes, we learned all about how to be the best parents in the world!!! Or at least better then what we have been doing. It was great to discuss the true meaning of liberty, education, and parenting with such amazing people.  If you missed out, you can get a recording of everything at tjed marketplace.  I highly recommend it.

I'm off on vacation for a week or two...time for hands on learning!  :)  bye!

Brigham Young

This week we studied Brigham Young.  He was a pretty awesome person in case you didn't know. My boys loved learning about him and the Mormon pioneers, especially how pioneers used buffalo poop for fire.

We played pioneer games for one of our days. These games included pea shooters, stick pulling, and wagon wheel rolling.  I DID take photos but..well, technical malfunction.  We used hula hoops to represent wagon wheels, but they went a little crazy with them and they were broken within about 10 minutes.  Oops.

We also made wagons.  This was right up Maxwell's alley and he relished making this craft.  I think you can tell this when you look at the finished result.

For science we learned about positive and negative charges and batteries.  It was fun because we played with balloons a lot, but it was also frustrating because most of my experiments DIDN'T work! urg...I have not yet been able to make a homemade battery.  I had everything ready to make several kinds of homemade batteries, and not one worked.....I am buying a kit next time! (I think it is fitting that the photos didn't work for my science day that didn't work!)

This week's field trip was a field trip of epic proportions....You would think a simple tour of Brigham Young's Beehive house and walk around temple square would be low key, but no.  From Dustin being asked by a stranger on our tour who was interested in the church to give him a blessing after Dustin bore his testimony to him, to a guy on the street thinking Dustin was a polygamist because we had my friend and her daughter with us, to Hyrum falling into the fountain and getting DRENCHED, this was a field trip that I think I will NEVER forget!

Westward!

This week we studied about the Oregon trail.  Am I the only one who always thinks of that old Atari computer game when ever the Oregon trail is mentioned? We talked about how Oregon had a lot of trees and good land that made people think they could have a better life there.  We made log cabins as our activity.  We made them out of huge pretzels and glue.  I saw Hyrum and Daniel eating them later….I hope the glue tasted good!

We also made faux beaver pelt hats.  I wasn't planning on it, but in every book, there was something about how the pioneers made money off of trapping beavers for top hats.  I couldn't pass up this opportunity for a cute project. The boys are still wearing them and are very proud of them.

We also made butter and jam (since that was what I DID plan.) We shook and shook whipping cream and blended and mushed strawberries, and we ended up with some delicious butter and jam sandwiches!

For science we began learning about electricity…I have to say, I personally had fun with these experiments.  We played with the static electricity of combs, and learned about insulators and conductors. We made a conductor tester with some wire, a battery, and a light bulb, and we tested different objects to see if electricity could go through them. Scissors, spoons, coins, and hole punchers work great…pens, jump ropes, and most toys…not so much.

For field trip, we went to the pioneer memorial museum of Utah.  Can we say nick-nacks!  Some museums need to realize that less is more.  It was not very kid friendly, but we did see a real beaver pelt top hat that belonged to non other then Brigham Young!